I know, I know. I haven’t found much good to say about women’s magazines of late. Indeed, I’ve been downright negative on the whole lot, frankly finding them more a source of humor or social comment than anything else.
But what do you know? I just ran through the October issue of Self, which is featuring the Tenth Breast Cancer Handbook. The editors have found just the right tone – which is not easy given the subject. It is neither too pitifully sympathetic nor too medical. The information is up to date, frank, clearly and intelligently written.
One slim column lists seven vital details that have changed in the field of breast cancer in the last 10 years. Sample details to lift the spirits of all women. “About 60 percent of women over 40 have had a mammogram in the past year; 10 years ago only 30 percent had had one in the past year.”
“The Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998 mandates that insurers must generally pay for reconstructive surgery if they cover mastectomies. Health plans used to routinely deny patients such coverage.”
“As of June 2000, all Medicare patients can participate in breast cancer clinical trials, with the government picking up the tab.”
“Potentially lifesaving drugs aimed specifically at breast cancer, such as raloxifene and Herceptin, didn’t even exist a decade ago.”
Go back some 25 or 30 years ago, and you’d find radical mastectomy was virtually the only treatment for breast cancer in the States, whereas in Europe – particularly in Sweden, Great Britain and France – women were being treated by radiation or lumpectomy.
On this particular point, I feel well qualified to speak. Living in Europe, quite regularly I’d pick up some big circulation women’s publication, like Elle, and there’d be a large feature piece, illustrated with full color photographs, showing the progress of each kind of treatment, discussions with the surgeons and the women themselves.
I thought, wow, what a great subject for an American publication. I trundled the proposal around to most of the main mags that ran my copy. Eventually, the Los Angeles Times, with some reluctance, accepted the article, the editor saying he was concerned that the piece might upset women who didn’t have access to this kind of treatment.
Then, a little later on a visit to the States, I dropped in on the new publication Ms. A couple of the editors listened with considerable interest. After all, I was offering them a potentially big cause for a women’s magazine to go all out for and champion. The word came back in a few days, “Oh, we talked it over with some of our husbands who are doctors and they said there was nothing to it. That we shouldn’t touch it.” I wound up going off to Tunisia for them to do an article about the condition of women in a Moslem land. Interesting, but hardly world-shaking. My French doctor friend when I reported back in Paris to him, said with a touch of scorn, “American medicine, unfortunately, is in the hands of surgeons and surgeons aren’t very interested in radiation.”
Thank Heaven, American medicine has moved forward, and Self ‘s editors can feel proud of themselves for having done right by all women. And to be fair, the rest of the magazine is at the same level. So, Self right now is number one on my women’s magazine list. I unreservedly recommend it.
